CM50 Accelerates Towards a New Global Economy with the Appointment of a Dedicated Development Team

by Elsa,

CM50, the International Cooperative Alliance’s (ICA) exclusive leadership circle for the world's largest cooperatives and mutuals, is taking concrete steps forward to operationalize its vision for a fairer, more resilient global market. To drive the initiative's core ambition of growing the global cooperative economy to US$5 trillion by 2035, CM50 Co-Chairs Jeroen Douglas and Shaun Tarbuck have established a dedicated development team. 

This new team brings together a blend of expertise from both within and beyond the cooperative community, providing the operational capacity required to turn the CM50 leaders' commitments into financeable, at-scale deliverables: 

  • Jan Kellett joins as the Executive Lead. Formerly a director at the United Nations Development Programme where he led global work on financial resilience, Kellett brings nearly three decades of experience in designing and implementing large-scale, transformative programs from the ground up. 

  • Joseph Njuguna, ICA Director of Policy, will focus on membership relations. He will serve as a crucial bridge, ensuring alignment between the CM50 network and the broader ICA. 

  • Elsa Scholte, an international communications expert and Global Communications Director at Solidaridad, joins the team to drive strategic communications and public relations. 

  • Kristof De Spiegeleer, a serial technology entrepreneur and pioneer in digital democracy, has been appointed as the CM50 Chief Technical Officer. He will play a vital role in developing the collaborative digital ecosystems that will serve as shared infrastructure for the movement. 

From left to right: Jan Kellet, Jeroen Douglas, Elsa Scholte, Shaun Tarbuck, Joseph Njuguna

The Road to the Leadership Summit  

The newly formed development team is already working closely with the recently appointed CEO working-group chairs to structure and cost a series of ambitious, scalable projects. 

This work will culminate at the next critical milestone: the first Annual CM50 Leadership Summit, taking place June 29–30 in Brussels. Under the banner "Architects of a New Global Economy," CEOs and senior leaders from the world’s most influential cooperative businesses will gather to endorse these first concrete projects, officially launch the CM50 collaborative platform, and map a definitive strategic roadmap toward the inaugural New Global Economy Forum in 2027 and beyond.